They called those who served in WWII The Greatest
Generation, hailed the return of soldiers with parades and The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the
GI Bill, then built memorials and awarded medals, producing inspiring Hollywood
movies about U.S. soldiers’ courage under fire.
Unfortunately, some who served and lost their lives during
WWII were not recognized, assisted, awarded honors nor provided with GI
benefits and military burials, for decades. Some disappeared to new hometowns after
the war where little was known about their service. Among those unsung heroes were the Women
Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and some of them lived here in our Valley.
If you dined at The Brave Bull in San Jose many years ago
and were served by a straight-talking, tough as nails, almost 6-foot tall waitress
named Marge, or took flying lessons from a by-the-book middle-aged woman of the
same name at Reid Hill-View Airport (when Amelia Reid was in charge of the
aviation school there), you most likely met former WASP, Marge Frenzel. According to Robin Reid, Amelia Reid's son, Frenzel was very tough on her student pilots, sitting behind them in the cockpit and telling them to “sit up straight” during lessons, believing their lives depended on comportment which proved they were really paying attention.
Frenzel, born in 1920 as “Anna Logan”, grew up in a small
town in Kansas. She worked as an office assistant for a couple who owned a
small airport in South Dakota, where she learned to fly during her first
aviation job.
Anna Logan, AKA: Marge Frenzel (above) was trained as a WASP in Sweetwater, Texas, WASP Class 44-1. After the war she moved to San Jose, California.
Anna Logan, AKA: Marge Frenzel (above) was trained as a WASP in Sweetwater, Texas, WASP Class 44-1. After the war she moved to San Jose, California.
While in Sweetwater, Logan became friends with fellow WASP Marge Hurlburt, with whom she would later design the Hurlburt Hurricane NX 1223 along with another fellow WASP and co-designer, Duke Caldwell. Their aircraft was also known as the Camburn Special, a midget plane designed for air racing.
Logan/Frenzel was one of the first women to participate in
the Cleveland Air Races of 1948, although women were only allowed to participate in a secondary race sponsored by
Hale Department Store, since women were not permitted to fly in the actual 1948 Cleveland Race.
I was told that Logan/Frenzel flew a North American T-6 (vintage aircraft racing was popular) and had to do a forced landing, telling others that her plane had been sabotaged. Competition was very fierce, so some women slept in the hangar with their planes to prevent tampering.
Frenzel once stated (according to Robin Reid) that as a WASP ferrying planes, “You just figured it out; men (at the factories and bases) did not help us or tell us how to start the planes.”
This seems to be consistent with what I have read online about the hostility which some WASP met at factories and bases among men who felt that women should not be in service as pilots, taking jobs from men. As you will read below, others felt that engaging women pilots to perform routine aircraft transport work, allowed men to serve in other more vital capacities during the war.
I was told that Logan/Frenzel flew a North American T-6 (vintage aircraft racing was popular) and had to do a forced landing, telling others that her plane had been sabotaged. Competition was very fierce, so some women slept in the hangar with their planes to prevent tampering.
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| Crystal Eagle Award Northern California Aero Club |
This seems to be consistent with what I have read online about the hostility which some WASP met at factories and bases among men who felt that women should not be in service as pilots, taking jobs from men. As you will read below, others felt that engaging women pilots to perform routine aircraft transport work, allowed men to serve in other more vital capacities during the war.
Logan/Frenzel ended both her Brave Bull waitress employment and her Reid Hill-View flight instructor
career as she grew older, opting to become a San Jose school crossing guard
later in life.
She and Amelia Reid were never close according to Robin Reid; he states that they repeatedly argued about the layout and tidiness of the Reid Hill-View aviation school office. However, since both women were raised in small towns during the depression, they bonded as divorced women raising children alone.
According to Robin Reid, Amelia Reid co-signed on a real estate contract to help Frenzel purchase a home in East San Jose, so Frenzel would have a safe place to raise her three sons; Cal, Glenn
and Steve. As Robin Reid said about his mother, "You just did those kind of things to help people, in those days."
The Chicago Tribune has a wonderful article about Amelia Reid (1924-2001) and her son, commercial pilot Robin Reid, including their history, backgrounds and flying achievements, at:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-02-12-9303181838-story.html
She and Amelia Reid were never close according to Robin Reid; he states that they repeatedly argued about the layout and tidiness of the Reid Hill-View aviation school office. However, since both women were raised in small towns during the depression, they bonded as divorced women raising children alone.
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| Amelia Reid-Image from FindAGrave.com |
The Chicago Tribune has a wonderful article about Amelia Reid (1924-2001) and her son, commercial pilot Robin Reid, including their history, backgrounds and flying achievements, at:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-02-12-9303181838-story.html
Frenzel was mentioned briefly in newsletters posted online by The Ninety-Nines’s, a women’s pilot
association with chapters around the United States. Frenzel received a CrystalEagle award (see image above) from the Northern California Aero Club, during a program held at
Hiller Aviation Museum. Frenzel passed away in 2005; her family still owns some of her planes.
It was very difficult to locate information about Frenzel in WASP source material, so I am indebted to those who knew her* for their contributions to this article. Many thanks to Robin Reid, who was kind enough to call me with information about his mother and Anna Logan/Marge Frenzel.
A wonderful memoir about Reid Hill-View Airport by Jim Meide, mentions Frenzel:
It was very difficult to locate information about Frenzel in WASP source material, so I am indebted to those who knew her* for their contributions to this article. Many thanks to Robin Reid, who was kind enough to call me with information about his mother and Anna Logan/Marge Frenzel.
https://www.wingsofhistory.org/personal-history-of-reid-hillview-airport/
The Wings of History Aviation Museum in San Martin has undoubtedly the best display on the history of women in aviation, found anywhere. Congratulations to their docents and volunteers who spent many hours reproducing photos and adding factual text to the display at their site, for their efforts to remember and honor women pilots, many of whom broke records for speed, altitude and endurance.
The Wings of History Aviation Museum in San Martin has undoubtedly the best display on the history of women in aviation, found anywhere. Congratulations to their docents and volunteers who spent many hours reproducing photos and adding factual text to the display at their site, for their efforts to remember and honor women pilots, many of whom broke records for speed, altitude and endurance.
Eleanor Thompson Wortz (below) also trained as a WASP in Sweetwater Texas, Class 43-4, just before Logan Frenzel. After the war she had an international career as a linguist and eventually moved to Los Altos with her husband. She worked for a brief time at Moffett Field in Mountain View, before becoming an educator.
If you attended the Los Altos United Methodist Church, took
Business courses at the College of San Mateo, or had a swim at the Woodland
Vista Swim and Racket Club in Los Altos, you most likely met Eleanor Thompson
Wortz (left), who wrote an autobiography about her life and aviation
experiences as a WASP, entitled: Fly Gals of World War II: Women Airforce Service Pilots
(WASP). **
Like Logan/Frenzel, Eleanor Wortz is found in the Women Airforce Service Pilot Digital Archive, within the Woman’s Collection online at Texas Woman’s University, with selected biographies, photos and basic data about the WASP program:
https://twudigital.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p214coll2
Wortz's obituary is found at:
This article lists only a few of our local WASP and aviation heroines. If you search
the archive of online magazines produced by the Ninety-Nines’s, a national club for women pilots, the
local chapter reports may show the names of former local WASP and women pilots once active in air races and local chapter meetings: https://www.ninety-nines.org/
Likewise, the Aero Club of Northern California has honored
former WASP for their achievements: https://www.aeroclubnocal.org/
A Northern California Wasp group at one time held annual reunions and posted that information online, yet, as the few remaining local WASP decrease in numbers, sometimes little is known or easily discovered about their lives and roles in the WASP program, if their biographical information has not been published or digitized by those archiving WASP history. TWU (Texas Woman's University) has digitized the publication, WASP NEWS.
A Northern California Wasp group at one time held annual reunions and posted that information online, yet, as the few remaining local WASP decrease in numbers, sometimes little is known or easily discovered about their lives and roles in the WASP program, if their biographical information has not been published or digitized by those archiving WASP history. TWU (Texas Woman's University) has digitized the publication, WASP NEWS.
History of the WASP
On September 10, 1942, Nancy Harkness Love, under the aegis
of the U.S. Air Transport Command, gathered 25 rigidly screened women pilots to
create the Women’s Air Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), operating out of New Castle
Army Base in Delaware, Maryland. Only 40 women met the qualifications needed to
serve. When they were accepted into the program, they had to purchase their own
uniforms to ferry planes from aviation factories to military bases. https://www.army.mil/women/history/pilots.html
Similarly, Jackie Cochran, who learned to fly in 1932 while
working as a cosmetics salesperson and later won international aviation races, also
achieved the first blind instrument landing by a female pilot and set records
for altitude and airspeed. She became the first woman to fly a bomber to
England during WWII.
More about Jackie Cochran:
The British Air Transport Authority were already recruiting
women pilots to move military planes during WWII.
By 1939 Cochran believed that U.S. women could serve in the
same manner as women pilots in the UK. She proposed a similar program to Eleanor Roosevelt, however, General
Henry “Hap” Arnold rejected her proposal. Not to be dissuaded, Cochran
recruited 25 women pilots from the U.S. to train and serve in the war effort overseas
by ferrying military aircraft for England, and in her words, to “free a man to
fight”.
It has been said that on her return from England in 1943,
Cochran was irate to learn that Nancy Harkness Love had been given permission
to train women pilots to serve in the WAFS. Cochran lobbied the military
heavily to adopt her original proposal, which included military classes,
training and duties for women pilots far beyond just ferrying new military planes
to bases.
Eventually, due to Cochran’s perseverance, the WAFS were
absorbed into a new service called the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) under
her leadership.
Although women who flew sometimes died and were injured during their WASP
service, the WASP did not gain full military status until 1977, thanks to Public Law 95-202, Section 401 (PDF), signed by President Jimmy Carter. The new law granted WASP
retroactive veteran status. By 1984 WASP were finally awarded WWII Victory
Medals. Those who had served one year received the American Theater Campaign Medal.
In 2010, WASP were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal (see image below).
An excellent slide show, timelines and interviews of
then-living WASP may be found on the NPR Web site at: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123773525
The NPR WASP timeline features accounts by WASP Margaret Phelan Taylor (images at left) of Palo Alto, as well as the tragic story of Mabel Rawlinson (see images below) who died at age 26 in 1943, when she may have been hit by friendly fire while towing a practice target for inexperienced aircraft anti-artillery gunner students.
Some believe Rawlinson's aircraft fuel was sabotaged with sugar by “angry male pilots who resented the females taking over their stateside jobs”, and that the sabotage was covered up by the military. This prompted Jackie Cochran to fly to the site of Rawlinson's crash to conduct her own investigation, where she determined that sugar in the fuel line and a stuck hatch was the cause of the crash.
Rawlinson’s story is told by her niece (unnamed) at: http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2008/05/still_my_fallen_hero_fly_girl.html
Read Margaret Phelan Taylor's story on Palo Alto Online. Images of Taylor (above) are from that publication. Here is the direct link to the article about Taylor and Rawlinson, plus Taylor's comments about conditions for WASP in service and lack of military funds for burials, etc., from that publication:
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2009/07/06/palo-altan-to-receive-congressional-gold-medal
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2009/07/06/palo-altan-to-receive-congressional-gold-medal
This article is dedicated to WASP and the memory of Mabel Rawlinson.
Images of her are below, taken from her obituary,
written by her niece Pam Pohly, at:
http://wingsacrossamerica.us/web/obits/rawlinsom_mabel.htm
To WASP who served without recognition for so many years;
Thank you for your service.
More Resources:
The Ninety Nines history:
National WASP WWII Museum in Sweetwater Texas:
Wings Across American by Doreen Parrish:
WASPS remembered:
On Eleanor Wortz:
WWII Roster of Women Pilots:
Gilroy Dispatch Article on WASP:
https://gilroydispatch.com/honoring-gravity-defying-women-pilots/
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Sources not listed above:
Image of Anna Logan/Marge Frenzel WASP class photo reproduced for educational purposes, from Texas Woman's University online:
https://twudigital.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p214coll2/search/searchterm/44-w-1/page/2
https://twudigital.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p214coll2/id/4500/rec/35
Image of Eleanor Thompson Wortz WASP class photo reproduced for educational purposes, from from Texas Woman's University online:
*Many thanks to Mary Hanel, Santa Clara City Library Genealogy and Local History Librarian (retired) for information about Eleanor Thompson Wortz, to Robin Reid, to Jen Watson of Aerodynamic Aviation and to all of the docents at the Wings of History Aviation Museum in San Martin, California, for their assistance and willingness to answer perhaps far too many questions about WASP in Santa Clara County. ---C. Alexander.
Enter your location on WorldCat to find her book at your local library: https://www.worldcat.org/title/fly-gals-of-world-war-ii-women-airforce-service-pilots-wasp/oclc/785831774&referer=brief_results
---Catherine Alexander Bright, SiliconValleyLibrarian.org